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Skeletal remains near Gateway linked to 26-year-old case

Skeletal remains recovered Friday from a vehicle southwest of Gateway are confirmed as belonging to a 65-year-old man reported missing 26 years ago, the Mesa County Coroner’s Office said today.

Ronald Vasey had attempted suicide and made similar threats prior to his reported disappearance by family in Mesa County in 1987, the coroner’s office said in a release.

“All evidence gathered points to this being a suicide,” the coroner’s release said.

Mesa County Sheriff’s Sgt. Matt Lewis told The Daily Sentinel a man hiking alone along steep terrain off John Brown Canyon Road called 911 around 6 p.m. Thursday to report the discovery of a human skeleton inside a vehicle, which was down a cliff roughly 100 feet off the roadway. The hiker found a “very old station wagon” with no license plates, Lewis said. The vehicle was partially obscured by rocks and various sediment, he said.

Lewis said deputies found personal items including articles of clothing, credit cards and “other cards you might commonly find in a wallet.”